AI & Data Summit
Unlocking the Power of Data and AI
Building Intelligence that Creates Real Value
The IDC UK AI and Data Summit is the premier event for senior technology and business executives driving artificial intelligence and data strategies across the region. Designed for CDOs, Heads of Data, and AI and innovation leaders, this full-day event delivers high-impact insights and actionable strategies focused on Europe’s top priorities: AI adoption at scale, data governance and quality, and regulatory compliance in a fast-evolving digital landscape.
As organizations accelerate investment in AI and data-driven transformation, they must navigate complex challenges including the EU AI Act. IDC research shows that 29% of enterprises cite data quality and availability as their top barrier to realizing AI value, while over 90% share data externally but only 30% do so strategically. This forum addresses these critical issues, equipping leaders to turn data into a trusted, strategic asset while embedding transparency, ethics, and sovereignty into their AI initiatives.
IDC’s analysts and industry experts will guide you on how to build future-ready data architectures, operationalize AI responsibly, and drive measurable business impact. Through keynote sessions, panels, and collaborative discussions, this event provides Europe’s leaders with the tools and frameworks to transform AI and data into a foundation for innovation, resilience, and growth.
Agenda
IDC research shows that 29% of European enterprises cite data quality and availability as the biggest barrier to realizing AI’s value, while over 90% share data externally, but only 30% do so strategically. In Europe, these gaps underscore the urgency of establishing trusted data spaces, federated data ecosystems, and responsible AI governance.
Through keynotes, executive panels, and peer discussions, participants will gain the insights and tools needed to transform AI and data into the foundation of Europe’s next wave of innovation, resilience, and competitive advantage.
2026 Prediction
By 2027, organizations that adopt tools and processes for AI evaluation and monitoring will have the confidence to deploy AI applications twice as fast as those that don’t.
Main Themes
Data Value Reinvention in the Age of AI
Organizations are shifting from thinking about “using AI” to “leveraging data for AI value,” integrating data maturity practices like cataloging, lineage, and observability to fuel model performance and business impact.
Scaling AI: From Pilot to Enterprise Deployment
Moving beyond experimentation, leaders create robust MLOps pipelines, governance frameworks, and change strategies to embed AI into core operations at scale with sustainability and reliability.
Trust, Transparency and Responsible AI
Embedding fairness, bias mitigation, auditability, and explainability across the AI lifecycle helps build user confidence, regulatory alignment, and long-term trust in intelligent systems.
Data Sovereignty, Governance and Interoperability
Balancing data residency, regulatory constraints, and cross-border flow requires hybrid cloud strategies, shared governance models, and interoperable architectures that meet business needs.
Generative and Agentic AI: The Next Frontie
As generative and agentic models go beyond assistance, leaders focus on guardrails, cost/risk trade-offs, hybrid model design, and alignment with existing AI systems.
People, Culture and AI Readiness
spaiSuccess requires preparing teams with AI literacy, reskilling, cross-functional collaboration, and leadership that navigates resistance and embeds data-driven habits into daily workflows.
2026 Prediction
By 2028, there will be at least 100 companies built predominantly using AI, with fewer than a dozen people and generating $1+ billion.
IDC Analysts
Ewa Zborowska
Ewa Zborowska, an experienced technology professional with over two decades of expertise in the European IT services and cloud market. Since 2003, she has been a member of the IDC team, based in Warsaw, focusing on IT services research. In 2018, she joined the European team with a specific emphasis on cloud and AI.
Ms. Zborowska’s interests encompass a broad spectrum, from exploring new technology delivery models to delving into the relationship between business and IT, and understanding the societal and individual impacts of technology. She has authored numerous market publications and reports and advises on IDC projects throughout Europe. She also participates in IDC’s and third-party conferences as a keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator.
Prior to her role at IDC, Ms. Zborowska worked at Statistics Poland (formerly the Central Statistical Office) and worked at an IT company. She holds a degree in Management from the University of Łódź in Poland and has completed postgraduate studies in forecasting and foresight at Collegium Civitas University in Warsaw.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 3:55 pm
IDC Research Insight: Strategic Choices for Scaling AI in a Fragmented and Sovereign European Landscape
This session focuses on the strategic choices organisations must make to scale AI in Europe, where sovereignty, diversity, and workforce dynamics shape how adoption unfolds. It will examine different operating models for scaling across fragmented markets, how to balance centralisation vs localisation, and how leading organisations are aligning technology, talent, and governance to accelerate adoption. The session will provide a clear framework for making AI investment and scaling decisions in the European context.
Duncan Brown
Duncan Brown is associate vice president, European Security Practice, at IDC EMEA and leads the firm’s security research program in Europe. He specializes in providing strategic advice to his clients, informing and validating their corporate, product, and marketing plans. Brown is an expert in analyzing the security market globally, and his list of security-related clients includes enterprises, central banks, government organizations, and security product suppliers and services providers. Brown’s expertise spans the gamut of security topics including incident response, threat intelligence, and global privacy issues. He established and leads IDC’s coverage of the global impact of the GDPR, the RPEC (ePrivacy Directive update) and NIS Directive on technology companies and their customers. His analysis and opinions are widely sought by industry leaders and investors, while his comments on industry trends and developments frequently appear in the leading business and trade publications.
Neil Ward-Dutton
Event Sessions
One Day Event 9:40 am
IDC Keynote: From AI Experiments to Agentic Enterprise – Where Real Value Is Emerging
This keynote sets the strategic foundation for the day, exploring how organizations are moving beyond isolated AI use cases toward integrated, agentic systems that deliver measurable business outcomes. Drawing on IDC research, this session will clarify where AI is already creating tangible value, where expectations exceed reality, and how leading enterprises are evolving their operating models to capture sustainable advantage.
Speakers
Alex Laurie
Alex Laurie is the Go-to-Market Chief Technology Officer at Ping Identity. With over two decades in security and identity technology, Alex has worked with leading international organisations, government departments, and military and police forces.
Alex has been a key player in driving digital transformation, having actively contributed to projects on both the vendor and system integrator fronts. On a daily basis, Alex engages with enterprise-scale organisations, providing invaluable support to clients and partners. His dynamic interactions are fuelled by a profound understanding of the rapidly evolving threat landscape. Alex’s commitment to excellence and his ability to leverage his deep knowledge make him an indispensable asset in the ever-changing and challenging world of cybersecurity.
Alex is a passionate and engaging speaker, dedicated to promoting education, awareness, and human-centric approaches to managing risk in an increasingly digital world. Driven by a commitment to bridging the gap between complex technologies and tangible outcomes, specialising in translating technical insights into actionable strategies that resonate with diverse audiences.
Simon Muskett
Simon Muskett leads innovation, AI, and quantum strategy at Digital Realty, one of the world’s largest data center operators, reporting into the CTO office with a global remit. His focus: building a simplified path for innovators, OEMs, and partners that empowers businesses to grow during this inflection point. Simon grows Digital Realty’s infrastructure ecosystem by translating emerging compute — from GPU-dense AI clusters to early quantum systems and novel approaches to silicon — into measurable infrastructure and energy efficiency outcomes for enterprise customers. Realising the opportunity ahead for AI and Quantum Computing.
With over 20 years of technology leadership across Dell, Ericsson, Citrix, and Digital Realty, Simon bridges the gap between hyperscale infrastructure economics and next-generation workloads. He advises on AI training and inference architecture, optimal power delivery, early quantum technologies, and bringing next-generation compute into commercial deployment.
Simon guest lectures at the London School of Economics on AI leadership and holds board-level positions in the technology sector.
Anupama Hatti
Anupama Hatti is Head of Programme Delivery (Digital, Data & Technology Services) at NHS Blood and Transplant, where she leads large-scale transformation Programmes across life-critical systems. With over 24 years’ experience across healthcare, aerospace, telecom domains, she is known for delivering complex change with clarity, inclusion and purpose. Anupama is also Co-Chair of the NHSBT Women’s Network and a passionate advocate for women in STEM, Women in AI, mentoring the next generation of technology leaders. She is also a STEM Ambassador and a school governor.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 10:40 am
Opening Panel Discussion: Where AI Delivers Real Business Value Today – and Where It Doesn’t (Yet)
Industry leaders discuss how AI is translating into measurable business outcomes across functions and industries. The panel will examine proven use cases, common value traps, and what differentiates organisations that achieve ROI from those still stuck in experimentation. The discussion will also address how value creation is evolving as organisations move toward more autonomous, agentic capabilities
Shubhangi Goyal
Event Sessions
One Day Event 10:40 am
Opening Panel Discussion: Where AI Delivers Real Business Value Today – and Where It Doesn’t (Yet)
Industry leaders discuss how AI is translating into measurable business outcomes across functions and industries. The panel will examine proven use cases, common value traps, and what differentiates organisations that achieve ROI from those still stuck in experimentation. The discussion will also address how value creation is evolving as organisations move toward more autonomous, agentic capabilities
Marco Iannone
Event Sessions
One Day Event 10:40 am
Opening Panel Discussion: Where AI Delivers Real Business Value Today – and Where It Doesn’t (Yet)
Industry leaders discuss how AI is translating into measurable business outcomes across functions and industries. The panel will examine proven use cases, common value traps, and what differentiates organisations that achieve ROI from those still stuck in experimentation. The discussion will also address how value creation is evolving as organisations move toward more autonomous, agentic capabilities
Oscar Barlow
Event Sessions
One Day Event 10:40 am
Opening Panel Discussion: Where AI Delivers Real Business Value Today – and Where It Doesn’t (Yet)
Industry leaders discuss how AI is translating into measurable business outcomes across functions and industries. The panel will examine proven use cases, common value traps, and what differentiates organisations that achieve ROI from those still stuck in experimentation. The discussion will also address how value creation is evolving as organisations move toward more autonomous, agentic capabilities
Miryem Salah
Shruti Ahuja
Head of Digital Transformation, Business Intelligence & Analytics
Virgin Media O2
Read bio
Shruti Ahuja
Kaushik Chaubal
Sapna Patel
Ramy Erfan
Vice President specialising in AI governance and operational excellence in highly regulated financial services, with 13+ years of international experience leading enterprise scale transformation across technology, operations, and risk. I lead multi market AI and GenAI programmes that help organisations move from experimentation to controlled, value driven adoption with regulatory confidence and measurable business outcomes.
Ed Bearryman
Ed is Deputy Director of Digital Transformation in the Government Communication Service (GCS) at the Cabinet Office. In this role, he founded and scaled the New Media Unit, a multi-disciplinary communications operation at the heart of government which has delivered significant increases in favourability and trust with citizens in its first year. He was previously Head of Digital Communications in the Prime Minister’s Office at No 10 and Head of Digital Media and Communications at the Home Office. Prior to joining the government he was Head of Marketing, Digital Content at ITV and Head of Marketing, Content and Communities at News UK. He started his career as a journalist at the BBC where he spent 7 years working across their sport portfolio.
Neela Bhaskar
Annalisa Arcella
Walid Hadid
Kirsty Mason
Carina Nervold
Elodie De Fontenay
Sarah Hardison
Dominic Redmond
Event Sessions
One Day Event 4:15 pm
Closing Panel: Agentic AI Now……What Comes Next?
Agentic AI has rapidly moved from concept to capability – systems that can plan, act, and adapt with increasing autonomy are already reshaping how work gets done. But as organisations begin to operationalise these tools, bigger questions emerge: What does the next phase of agentic AI look like? How do we move from experimentation to scalable impact? And what new risks, responsibilities, and opportunities come with machines that don’t just respond – but initiate?
And beyond agents, what about AI as a whole? The field has a habit of surprising even its own researchers. Frontier research is moving fast in directions whose implications we’re only beginning to grasp: long-horizon reasoning, self-improving systems, world models. And then there are the unknown unknowns: capabilities that don’t yet have a name, emerging from labs that haven’t been published yet.
This panel will peer into the crystal ball and explore not only what’s next for agentic AI, but what’s next for AI overall……including the developments we don’t yet see coming.
Victoria Brasier
Digital and data transformation director with 17 years experience steering the strategy and execution of complex programmes that yield multi-million pound returns. Aligning people, tech, data and process to achieve business transformation objectives in regulated, global enterprises including Comcast, Sky and British Airways. Extensive experience integrating innovative tech and data products into business workflows and modernising technology platforms. Expertise in cloud adoption, advertising technology, governance, risk and compliance, automation and data product development.
Expert in structuring organisations for success and coaching diverse, high-performing teams. Creator of automated business processes and streamlined operating models that accelerate digital business. Winner of the ‘NextCIO’ and ‘100 Women in Tech’ Awards. Keynote speaker, author, board member, charity trustee.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 4:15 pm
Closing Panel: Agentic AI Now……What Comes Next?
Agentic AI has rapidly moved from concept to capability – systems that can plan, act, and adapt with increasing autonomy are already reshaping how work gets done. But as organisations begin to operationalise these tools, bigger questions emerge: What does the next phase of agentic AI look like? How do we move from experimentation to scalable impact? And what new risks, responsibilities, and opportunities come with machines that don’t just respond – but initiate?
And beyond agents, what about AI as a whole? The field has a habit of surprising even its own researchers. Frontier research is moving fast in directions whose implications we’re only beginning to grasp: long-horizon reasoning, self-improving systems, world models. And then there are the unknown unknowns: capabilities that don’t yet have a name, emerging from labs that haven’t been published yet.
This panel will peer into the crystal ball and explore not only what’s next for agentic AI, but what’s next for AI overall……including the developments we don’t yet see coming.
Cecilia Jastrzembska
Event Sessions
One Day Event 4:15 pm
Closing Panel: Agentic AI Now……What Comes Next?
Agentic AI has rapidly moved from concept to capability – systems that can plan, act, and adapt with increasing autonomy are already reshaping how work gets done. But as organisations begin to operationalise these tools, bigger questions emerge: What does the next phase of agentic AI look like? How do we move from experimentation to scalable impact? And what new risks, responsibilities, and opportunities come with machines that don’t just respond – but initiate?
And beyond agents, what about AI as a whole? The field has a habit of surprising even its own researchers. Frontier research is moving fast in directions whose implications we’re only beginning to grasp: long-horizon reasoning, self-improving systems, world models. And then there are the unknown unknowns: capabilities that don’t yet have a name, emerging from labs that haven’t been published yet.
This panel will peer into the crystal ball and explore not only what’s next for agentic AI, but what’s next for AI overall……including the developments we don’t yet see coming.
Lauren Walker
Event Sessions
One Day Event 4:15 pm
Closing Panel: Agentic AI Now……What Comes Next?
Agentic AI has rapidly moved from concept to capability – systems that can plan, act, and adapt with increasing autonomy are already reshaping how work gets done. But as organisations begin to operationalise these tools, bigger questions emerge: What does the next phase of agentic AI look like? How do we move from experimentation to scalable impact? And what new risks, responsibilities, and opportunities come with machines that don’t just respond – but initiate?
And beyond agents, what about AI as a whole? The field has a habit of surprising even its own researchers. Frontier research is moving fast in directions whose implications we’re only beginning to grasp: long-horizon reasoning, self-improving systems, world models. And then there are the unknown unknowns: capabilities that don’t yet have a name, emerging from labs that haven’t been published yet.
This panel will peer into the crystal ball and explore not only what’s next for agentic AI, but what’s next for AI overall……including the developments we don’t yet see coming.
Eleanor Ley
Knowledge Hub
5 Key Highlights on the European Observability Market in 2025
Observability is rapidly evolving as organizations across Europe embrace digital transformation, cloud adoption, and AI. As IT environments become more complex, traditional monitoring approaches are no longer sufficient.
The Agentic Business Future: Driving Resilience, Sovereignty, and Innovation in EMEA
As organizations navigate an era defined by economic uncertainty, geopolitical shifts, and relentless technological change, one truth stands out: the future belongs to those who can harness AI, automation, and sovereignty to build resilience, drive innovation, and unlock growth.
Shadow AI: How stealth productivity is strangling enterprise AI adoption. And creating a security nightmare…
Remember the good old days when “Shadow IT” was just about rogue Excel spreadsheets and unauthorized Dropbox accounts? But the times they are a-changing! Now we’re dealing with something far more insidious: Shadow AI.
Venue
133 Houndsditch
Located just minutes from Liverpool Street Station, Convene 133 Houndsditch is one of London’s most modern and versatile event venues—purpose-built to elevate conferences, exhibitions, training sessions, and large-scale meetings. Designed with the delegate experience at its core, the venue combines cutting-edge technology, sophisticated style, and exceptional hospitality to deliver seamless, impactful events.
Not the right event for you?
Don’t worry! We organize a variety of events designed to inspire original ideas, share the latest industry insights, and connect professionals like you. Simply sign up for event invitations, and we’ll notify you whenever a new event matches your interests.
Sign up